by Janyn Mariella Montealegre
Growing up, my eight-year-old self could not possibly comprehend how adults easily summarized the magnitude of life’s seasons and milestones into numbers disguised as measures of intelligence, wealth, performance, strength, and even happiness.
Recently, the Supreme Court departed from tradition and announced that there would be no Top 10 passers in the upcoming Bar Examination. Instead, those examinees who would obtain a weighted score of 85 percent or higher were to be recognized for exemplary performance. Together with the uncertainties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020/21 Bar Examinations Chairperson Associate Justice Marvic Leonen also cited the “unique circumstances” surrounding the different Bar takers as one of the reasons why there were various reforms introduced for the upcoming Bar exam.
Upon hearing this update, I felt relieved not only because a little amount of pressure was taken off of the shoulders of my ates and kuyas who will be taking the Bar exam next year, but more so because the rules of equity and fair play were given the space they aptly deserved in this time of a global pandemic.
To my mind, all individual efforts of the bar takers not similarly situated and who experienced varying levels of difficulties were finally seen and their narratives amplified. Some were faced with the death of loved ones, some struggled with physical and mental disorders, some wrestled with financial losses, and some chose to fight the battle in silence.
What is more noteworthy out of this change is the fact that this scenario is just a manifestation of a bigger picture.
In the world today, the question “How many books have you read?” defined one’s productivity. The query “What is your ideal marrying age?” defined one’s timeline. Citizens of different countries across the globe were even asked to rate their happiness on a scale of one to ten as if our lives could be compared like Washington and Fuji apples.
Human lives in general were often reduced into numbers. Life’s complexities being compacted into mere rankings, intellectual quotients, and numerical equivalents. In an attempt to quantify and define a moment, people have reduced life’s ups and downs into numbers which bastardize and devoid life of its very essence.
Over time, people tend to sacrifice substance and quality in the name of occupying higher digits. The dreadful effect is that we constantly worry about ourselves being graded low because we perceive it as a sign of weakness and failure. Thus, the line that separates our life from our work or career gets blurry such that we regard this low rating as the totality of our human worth.
Simply, quality learnings and values are sidelined while ratings take center stage.
This is a form of injustice. Although I recognize the immense benefit of devising a number system for societal order and consumption, this world obsessed with numbers should also be aware of the fact that there are several things and events that cannot be reduced to numerical form because doing so would debase and dilute the true worth of one’s persistence and hard work. Numbers are always easy to compare and rank, but it should not summarize the intricacies of life.
Now, I’ve finally realized why grown-ups were inclined to veer away from conversations which tended to reveal their ages—because reducing what they had gone through in life in merely two digits would not do them justice.
This is the tragedy of a number-obsessed world. We reduce in numbers what is, in reality, beyond numbers.
THE BARRISTER 